Bittersweet
by NeonFishnets
Summary: He turned abruptly. She knew he hadn’t expected her to follow him, that the gentle kiss and mere “goodbye”s were enough to her husband. They certainly weren’t enough for her, though....' Songfic. Set in DH.


A/N: Hokay! So! This is my first HP fic. Go easy flinches It's written to "Bittersweet" by Within Temptation (I highly suggest you run to YouTube, find it, and listen to it before reading this. It makes it a lot better). I hope you enjoy! Reviews are nice, and I love critique...but if you critique, I'd love to have some suggestions on _how _to improve. :D

Pairing: Andromeda/Ted

Disclaimer: Don't own. Don't sue. These characters and the book that inspired this fic belong to J.K. Rowling. :)

Have fun, kids! :P

--

_Bittersweet_

_--  
If I tell you, will you listen?  
__Will you stay?  
__Will you be here forever?  
Never go away?  
--_

She ran out after him.

"Wait. Ted. Please… Please just listen to me."

He turned abruptly. She knew he hadn't expected her to follow him, that the gentle kiss and mere "goodbye"s were enough to her husband. They certainly weren't enough for her, though. She stopped running towards him when she was arm's length from him.

A warm hand reached up and touched her face, the pad of his thumb stroking her cheek.

"'Dromeda, you know I need to leave. Please don't make this harder than it already is."

She tilted her head further into his palm. "No, you don't. You can stay here. We're in a secluded place…Please…" Her hand raised and met his, and she knew that that, right there, would be their last physical contact if she didn't say what she wanted to say, if she didn't convince him to stay.

She opened her mouth to start…three simple words. How hard could it possibly be? Almost everyone in the world her age had said it, why was it that she couldn't? It killed her. And she knew it killed him too.

_--__  
Never thought things would change__  
Hold me tight  
__Please don't say again that you have to go.  
--_

She had hoped since the day she fell in love with him that things would stay the way they were. She _knew _they would. Things were far too perfect to change.

But here she stood, watching everything transform before her eyes. Ted was about to alter his lifestyle completely, leaving her in the process. Nymphadora had a baby on the way… She knew that baby was the only reason she wasn't going _with_ Ted. She needed to be their for her daughter, she wanted to be.

If only there were a way to be in two places at once.

She leaned forward and rested her head on her love's chest. She could hear his heart pounding 1,000 times a minute as her arms circled around him and he returned the gesture.

He leaned down and whispered to her, his voice one of the most calming things she had ever heard. "'Dromeda… I need to--"

"Please don't say that again. _Please _don't. Don't go…" she pleaded into his chest.

Ted pulled away and held her by the shoulders, looking at her with noticeable sorrow in his eyes. He kissed her forehead and said the words that always made Andromeda feel guilty: "I love you."

She stared back at him desperately. After realizing he wasn't going to change his mind, she let her last words to him slip past her lips.

"You too."

_--  
A bitter thought  
I had it all  
But I just let it go  
--_

After slowly walking back into their home, she leaned against the front door and sighed. She finally let her body limply slide down the door until she was sitting on the wood floor in front of it. The only thing she realized she could do at this point was pull her knees to her chest and think -- or cry. But crying simply wasn't an option for her. She refused to let it be.

The side of her head fell to her knees and her long, dark hair tumbled down to her feet. As she tried to think about things other than the love that she knew she would lose, something she thought about always reminded her of him.

She had given up everything she had known for that man. _Everything_. Her sisters, her parents; the life she had once lived was obliterated by the love for someone that she could never have had otherwise.

She had had it all. Money, status…She wouldn't have had to work a day of her life. Her sisters loved her as much as she loved them, though she was never sure she could say the same about her parents. It didn't matter though. She could've had the world. It was so much to give up.

But it was worth it… _So_ worth it.

She began to cry.

_--  
All my thoughts are with you forever  
Until the day we'll be back together  
I will be waiting for you.  
--_

Her skirt, she noticed, was stained with tears after 5 minutes. Every time she had thought she was going to cry, she was able to hold back. She knew Ted _hated _that. He always told her that he wished she would show sadness every once in a while. Obviously, he didn't _want _her to be sad, but he had said that when she was sad enough to cry, she should cry. It wasn't until he left that she realized he was right.

He was right about everything.

She stood shakily. Apparently, crying made her unstable. Go figure.

Continuing to only be able to think of Ted, Andromeda began to walk slowly over to the kitchen table, a couple rooms away. She found it difficult, at that point, to even navigate through her own house. She passed family portraits in the hallway on the way to the kitchen and took time at each one to examine it and remember things that were said and done at the photographer's studio. She remembered Nymphadora tripping over a chair almost immediately when she walked through the door, and Ted catching her. Everyone _but _Dora had laughed, even the photographer.

She wondered why she was suddenly so nostalgic. All she had to do was tell herself that he would be back. And she would be waiting right there for him.

Even if it wasn't true.

_--  
If I had told you, you would've listened. You'd have stayed  
You would be here forever, never went away  
It would never have been the same  
All our time would have been in vain 'cause you had to go.  
--_

When she finally made it to the kitchen, she started heating up water. Tea was always something that could easily comfort her. She never really knew why, that's just the way it was. It always relaxed Dora as well. For some reason, however, it could never calm down Ted or her sisters. It more than likely never comforted her "parents" either.

As the water boiled, she took out a teacup and fixed up her tea the way she always had. Her feet carried her over to the table and she lowered herself down into a wooden chair, which creaked when she sat all the way down. As her tea cooled, her mind continued to race, not letting up for a second.

_You should've just said it. What if he listened to you, and those three words convinced him to stay? _

_I love you._

_It's not hard, Andy. Just say it. Right now. Out loud._

She opened her parched lips to speak. But when she moved them, the only thing that came out was a measly "I l--" She couldn't even say it when she was by herself.

_You're pathetic. You've said all three of those words before. Why can't you just put them together?_

"It wouldn't have convinced him to stay anyway…"

_You don't know that. Try again._

She took a deep breath, unable to believe she was actually talking to that odd voice in her head. "I lo--" A sigh escaped her lips. "Damn it." Her hand grasped the cup full of now partially cool tea and brought it to her lips.

_--  
All our moments  
Keep me warm  
__When you're gone  
--_

Andromeda sighed again and decided she'd try to recall as many of their memories as she could…and then mentally slapped herself.

_You're acting like he died. He's not dead._

"He's not dead _yet._", she mumbled to herself, taking another sip of tea. Another tear fell from her cheek as she recalled the first time they kissed, the first time they had sex, Nymphadora's birth, and the day she made the commitment to Ted that she would stick with him forever, no matter what.

She had just broken her vows. She should've followed him, like she said she would.

And now it was too late; he was gone. Soon enough, she felt, Dora would be gone too. Maybe not permanently, but she wouldn't need her mother anymore in a few months anyway.

Andromeda sighed, once again and closed her eyes, thinking back.

--

_Laying in bed with him, both of them bare-skinned right up next to each other, she looks at him the way that is reserved for only him. The way that no one else has ever had direct contact with._

_"You know…I've always loved the aggressiveness of Slytherin girls." He kisses her bare shoulder numerous times before she replies._

_"What makes you think we're so aggressive? Maybe we just try to appear that way."_

_"Do you do so in bed as well? 'Cause I could swear that usually comes from the heart." He smiles. And when she sees him do so, she wants so badly to tell him how she feels. "And, I'm not gonna lie. Your heart: pretty damn aggressive."_

_She slaps him playfully on the shoulder. "Careful. I might just start calling you Teddy. And I _know _you hate that. But I love it…so I really wouldn't have a problem."_

_He reaches for her sides and tickles her until she's laughing so hard she can't breathe, and when he stops, he says it for the first time, whispers it into her ear: "I love you, Andromeda Black."_

_All she can do is smile._

--

She smiled to herself. It had been a long time since she'd thought back to small things like that. She then realized how much power Ted Tonks truly had over her.

He showed her what love is.

He showed her it's possible to truly need someone more than anything else.

And due to him, she could remember what it felt like to cry.

She leaned back in her chair, stared out the window into the blank darkness, and wiped the half-dried tears from her cheeks.

"I love you."

_--_

_All my thoughts are with you forever_

_Until the day we'll be back together_

_I will be waiting for you._

_--_

--

So, there you have it :D Hope you liked...and I'd like you to tell me what you thought of it whether you liked it or not. :P Just press the little periwinkle button...there ya go. :D


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